Quality field in Abu Dhabi

BY Bruce Young | European PGA Tour | 2009 Abu Dhabi Golf Championship | Preview | 14 Jan 2009

The first of three consecutive European Tour events in the Middle East begins this week in Abu Dhabi when the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship is played for the fourth occasion.

A quality field will challenge the Peter Harradine designed layout at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club established in 1998 in this desert region to the east of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Harradine and his family company have been prolific designers of golf courses in Western Europe but in more recent years have established a niche market for themselves in the Middle East. This will be the first of two consecutive weeks where Harradine courses are used as next week’s venue in Qatar, the Doha Golf Club, is also a Harradine design.

With the Race to Dubai and the US$10 million on offer at the season ending event such a feature of this year’s European Tour, this week’s field is a reflection of the awareness by many of the need to make a fast start to 2009.

The world number two and three, Sergio Garcia and Padraig Harrington, are the headline acts but last year’s winner, Martin Kaymer, his runner up Henrik Stenson, the brilliant teenager Rory McIlroy and Australians Robert Allenby, Aaron Baddeley and Rod Pampling add further lustre to a quality field.

Not that the chances stop there as US Masters Champion, Trevor Immelman, and Ryder Cuppers Miguel Angel Jimenez, Soren Hansen and Paul Casey, who won in 2007, are in the field.

Garcia deserves to be favourite not only because of his world ranking but because of his amazing form towards the end of last season. He gave last week’s Mercedes-Benz Championship a miss but with eight top 5 finishes in his last nine starts of 2009 he ended the season on a high note and appears set for potentially his biggest year in the game. He has played this event previously, finishing 14th in 2007 and 3rd in 2006.

Henrik Stenson has become somewhat of a Desert specialist with a runner up finish in this event last year, a win and runner up finish in Qatar and a win in Dubai. Like many others he will be playing his first event of 2009 but with a runaway win at the Nedbank Challenge in December then it should not take him long to regain that winning feeling.

Padraig Harrington has had reasonable finishes in this event previously but having not played tournament golf for more than two months he might need this week and one or two more to be at his best.

McIlroy has yet to win on the European Tour but the manner in which he finished off in 2008 indicates that first victory might not be far away. He finished inside the top ten on seven of his last ten events in 2008 including when third at the South African open and runner up in Hong Kong.

Allenby has not played a stand alone European Tour event outside of Australia since the French Open in 2004 so it is rather interesting that he is in the field this week. He does bring very good form to the event however with several top ten finishes towards the end of 2008.

Aaron Baddeley is another who has focused most of his attention in the US in recent years but as a winner of the Mastercard Masters in late 2007 he is fully entitled to be in the field. It is perhaps surprising that he is not playing at the Sony Open in Hawaii, an event in which he has played well previously but there is obviously an agenda for him being in Abu Dhabi.

Baddeley last played tournament golf in Phoenix in October so it might be a bit much to expect him to be at his peak just yet, especially given the fact that he became a father for the first time late last year.

Other Australasians include the in-form Rod Pampling, Michael Campbell, Richard Green, Scott Strange, Danny Lee, Mark Brown, Brett Rumford, who has returned to the European Tour from the US, Peter O’Malley and New Zealand amateur Danny Lee.

Lee has a busy schedule leading into his appearance at the Masters in April after which he is expected to turn professional. He will play next week in Qatar then in Dubai, Malaysia, the Johnnie Walker Classic in Perth, the New Zealand PGA and the New Zealand Open.